North Shore school enrolment figures are holding steady this year, with the pace of expected declines continuing to slow in North Vancouver and the number of students actually up in West Vancouver.
Numbers of regular students are still steadily falling across the North Shore - driven both by demographic shifts and a lack of affordable housing for young families. But both local school districts have also been able to attract new students with specialized international baccalaureate, French Immersion and sports academy programs.
Additionally, both North and West Vancouver each have more than 500 international students enrolled in their schools.
In North Vancouver, preliminary figures show the school district has an enrolment of 15,125 students this September - down from last year's 15,250, but still higher than had been projected.
"We are dropping but less than we had expected," said John Lewis, schools superintendent.
Lewis said overall enrolment is expected to continue dropping by about 100 students a year as the larger classes of high school students - the end of the Baby Boomer "Echo" - graduate and are replaced by smaller numbers of incoming elementary students.
A number of schools are still full, however. Those numbers have been driven by the popularity of newly rebuilt schools as well as special programs like the international baccalaureate and early French Immersion programs. French Immersion for Kindergarten children, for instance, has been full for the past decade, said Lewis.
Those programs have attracted some students from outside the district's borders, as well as some students who previously attended private schools. The district also has about 600 international students registered, although some of those students may not attend for the full school year.
Those students aren't counted in the official enrolment figures, although their presence results in a financial gain of about $3,500 per student to school district coffers.
In a few cases, early enrolment in specialized programs has meant students who move into an area later in the year may find their neighbourhood school is already full, said Lewis.
In neighbouring West Vancouver, there are about 7,150 students registered this September, an increase of 40 to 50 students over last year.
In general, each year there are about 750 students graduating from high school in West Vancouver, and about 400 students entering kindergarten.
The reason enrolment figures remain steady, despite that demographic shift, is primarily due to enrolment of about 1,000 students who come into West Vancouver schools from outside the district's boundaries.
Many of those students' families choose to enroll their children in West Vancouver schools because of its strong academic record, combined with specialized programs like the sports academies (in which students spend about half their time in athletic training) and advanced placement programs (in which students do university-level curriculum at high school.) The district also has 530 international students - which is the maximum the school district can accommodate, said Kennedy.
The combined result is that two of the district's high schools - Sentinel and Rockridge - are just about full, said Kennedy.
At the elementary level, schools on the eastern edge of the district tend to be full - because out-of-district families prefer them.
Kennedy said the influx of students from outside the district's borders has helped West Vancouver fend off issues like school closures.
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